10,000 Steps

I have been walking almost every day now for over a year. I’ve worked up to three miles.

This seems like plenty to me but the current ideal for fitness is to walk 10,000 steps each day.

I have thought of buying a “Fitbit” or some other pedometer to see if I actually do walk those 10,000 steps  that are so highly recommended. Apparently, the magic number is 10,000. If you take that many steps each day, you are guaranteed good cardiovascular health.

Why not buy a cute little gadget to tell me how many steps I really am racking up?

I have many reasons for not purchasing one:

1.   I have tried pedometers before and they never work.

2.   Hooking one up to my computer is daunting. I have so many other problems with the darn computer, adding a new gadget seems like asking for trouble.

3.   .I know I will tire of it and it will become another expensive plaything staring at me accusingly in a few months.

4.   .Figuring out how far I have walked by various routes gives me something to think about on my walks.

Pushing me further toward such a purchase was a spate of articles declaring that walking in the morning doesn't carry one through the whole day. Sitting for the rest of the day will still wreak havoc with your poor veins.

You have to be up and about all day.

This is really depressing. For these reasons:

1.   .I feel like I deserve to fall down onto the couch the minute I return home from my walk.

2.    I read an awful lot. This is an activity I do not associate with walking.

3.     I mean, I don't even sit up to read. I lie down.

All my virtue gone.

It’s not like I am completely sedentary after my morning walk. I never watch TV until the evening. I perform household tasks, run errands, meet friends in other neighborhoods etc.

But now I feel like I am lying down on the job of keeping those veins open and healthy.

So I will get a pedometer.

Or not.

Maybe I can do this without one.

On my most recent walk, I counted how many steps I took in one block. Approximately 100. So, that means my 60 block walk would account for 6,000 of the 10,000 steps I need to keep my veins open. 

So how to get in the rest?

I counted how many steps it takes to walk from my computer into the kitchen and back. It was 50 steps. So if my math is correct, in order to get my additional 4000 steps, I only need to make 80 round trips into the kitchen and back.

For snacks maybe.